Athens –
A Turkish charity known IHH has found itself at the center of an international controversy over a fatal Israeli raid on a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

Several of IHH’s members were killed when Israeli commandos boarded the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara, a member of the self-described Gaza Freedom Flotilla, carrying the bulk of 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid the Strip. The IHH has been accused by Israel of funneling support to militant organizations across the Muslim world, a charge the group denies.

“Our president and our committee are currently arrested in Gaza so it’s too early to talk about going back but of course we’ll always continue to try breaking the embargo to get aid through,” says Fatma Varol, a volunteer with the organization speaking from its headquarters in Istanbul. The group’s official name is Insani Yardim Vakfi.

IN PICTURES: The Gaza flotilla and the aftermath of the Israeli naval raid

Greta Berlin, the co-founder of the Free Gaza Movement that has organized the previous eight attempts to deliver aid to Gaza, also vowed to press on.

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WASHINGTON — The U.S., hoping to avert an armed clash between two close allies, Israel and Turkey , and the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Tuesday urged caution on the international community as it endorsed a U.N. condemnation of “acts” that led to the deaths of nine international activists on an aid flotilla that was attempting to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza .

Israeli commandos rappelling from helicopters attacked the Mavi Marmara, a Turkish passenger vessel leading the aid flotilla in international waters early Monday and were assaulted by some of the passengers. In the melee, at least nine passengers were shot and killed and dozens were injured, and Israel is now holding the ships in the port of Ashdod along with some 700 passengers.

The crisis, which threatens to escalate, has the U.S. caught between two long-time allies: Israel , its closest partner in the Middle East , and Turkey , a member of the U.S.-led NATO alliance and a Muslim democracy that’s largely supported U.S. goals since the Cold War.

The U.S. is one of the few major powers that haven’t condemned Israel’s attack on the flotilla. The White House issued a statement offering “deep regrets for the loss of life and injuries sustained,” but urged patience and said it was “working to understand the circumstances” of the Israeli raid.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met for more than two hours Tuesday with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu , who publicly suggested that the Obama administration’s response to the Israeli raid on the flotilla, which set sail from Turkey , has been too weak.

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TOKYO (AFP) –
Japan’s centre-left Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told senior party officials Wednesday he will resign, public broadcaster NHK reported.

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LONDON (AFP) –
Fresh talks between British Airways and unions over ongoing cabin crew strikes broke up late Tuesday without any indication of whether any progress had been made.

BA chief executive Willie Walsh held six hours of negotiations with Tony Woodley, the joint leader of Unite, Britain’s biggest trade union, in a bid to find a breakthrough in the long-running dispute over travel perks.

Members of Unite are due to end their current five-day walkout — the second of three — on Thursday, with the next one due to begin on Saturday.

The airline said it was planning to increase its flying schedule during the next strike because “growing numbers” of staff were willing to work.

It said it was planning to run more than 80 percent of long-haul flights — up from 70 percent this week and 60 percent in the previous strike.

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There are few more crucial linchpins to global security than the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty of 1968. The document helps curb the ambitions of nations that covet nuclear weapons and puts pressure on countries holding the bomb to work toward its eventual elimination. So there was a lot at stake when delegates met in New York in May for a month-long review of the NPT. The last major review conference in 2005 ended in acrimonious failure and there were concerns that a similar fate this year would put the future of the treaty in doubt, right at a time when it is needed most. But then something unexpected happened: the global community came together.

“This was a win for multilateralism,” says Deepti Choubey, who attended the conference on behalf of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she is Deputy Director of the Nuclear Policy Program. “I was very pessimistic about the chance of achieving this outcome. But the document moved the treaty forward. It had several key advances in it.”

The advances could not have been better timed. On Tuesday, three days after the NPT conference was over, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that equipment that could be used to isolate weapons-grade plutonium had disappeared from a facility in Tehran, raising further questions about the country’s compliance with its NPT obligations. But by having coming to a consensus, the conference reinvigorated the treaty, which means the United Nations now has a stronger legal and moral case to press countries suspected of hiding nuclear programs – such as Syria and North Korea, along with Iran – to come clean. An emboldened French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that the IAEA’s report forced the U.N. Security Council to “seek the rapid adoption of a new sanctions against Iran.” (See Joe Klein on containing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.)

The NPT has three pillars: to disarm nuclear states, to ensure nonproliferation among non-nuclear states and to encourage the safe use of civilian nuclear technology. The 2010 review conference has now laid out a series of concrete “actions” that states must take to work toward those three goals. “That’s a novel measure,” says William Potter of the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) who has attended four NPT review conferences as an adviser to the Delegation of Kyrgyzstan. “We now have a scorecard with specific benchmarks against which the NPT parties can be judged during the next five-year review cycle.” (See the nuclear gamesmanship of the U.S. and Iran.)

Many states, including the U.S., had to make major compromises and accept a diluted text, but, Potter says, such horse-trading was inevitable given that the conference’s final document required the approval of all 189 signatory countries. “It’s very rare for 100 states to agree on anything,” he says. “For them to reach consensus on a number of practical steps touching on the most sensitive issues of national security must be regarded as a major accomplishment.”

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